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The album shows his aesthetic not as improved, but refined. Cole laces boom-bap percussions with glitch-synth accents and motifs to create a body of work that is approachable and easy. As a whole, the album’s instrumentals are more consistent than 2014’s 2014 Forrest Hills Drive. His raps refer onto his signature range of swaggering self-assurance and endearing portrayals of insecurity. From the album’s beginning and onward, he sings with an earnestness which doesn’t indicate a strain to achieve scintillating R&B vocals, but establishes vulnerability. Cole connects best with fans on a personal level. Cole, it is a wonder that his lyrical substance has failed to match the quality of his instrumental production or his maturely grounded worldview.Ĥ Your Eyez Only acknowledges the fact that J. As endearing as these qualities are in J. Cole has been something of an oxymoron – a hit-maker with a live performance interspersed with sermons speaking against materialism. Hits like “Power Trip” and “No Role Modelz” demonstrated the work of a creative mind with an innate ability to contort the popular instrumental palate and appeal to bread-earning demands of airplay. Cole’s prowess as a producer revealed itself well before he attained his double-platinum status. Cole is able to engage the masses in a discourse on politics, social issues, and virtue. Where an artist like Kendrick Lamar is likely to glean over the heads of a community which elevates the likes of Lil’ Yachty and Lil’ Uzi Vert into the upper tier, J. His humble and sincere persona, substantiated by chance encounters with him on local bus routes and his bike commute home, have rendered him the most “likable” person in hip-hop. Cole’s music, it is difficult not to wish him success. Cole from falling the way of his mixtape heyday peers Wale and Meek Mill.Īs divided as most hip-hop fans are about J. It is the latter’s absence of association, however, as opposed to the commercial success presented in the former, which has kept J. “Double platinum, no features,” the adage goes.